Actor Kurt Russell said celebrities should “step away” from politics and keep their political advocacies to themselves. The Hollywood actor made the remarks during a Nov. 18 interview by Ashley Spencer of the New York Times. Spencer also interviewed Russell’s longtime partner Goldie Hawn alongside him, as part of efforts to promote the couple’s new Netflix film The Christmas Chronicles: Part 2. Russell and Hawn play Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus in the movie, to be released Nov. 25.
During the interview, Spencer asked if Russell still believed that “celebrities shouldn’t really weigh in on politics” – which the actor has emphasized in the past. He responded in the affirmative, adding that celebrities should “step away from saying anything” in order for their audience to see them “in any character.” Entertainers who become vocal with their advocacies “lose their status as court jesters,” he added.
Russell explained that court jesters were not always funny, as they were the only ones who “can walk into the castle and put the king down as long as [they] do not hit too close to home.” He remarked that the role of court jesters was “a big, important part of all cultures throughout history,” and he wanted it to stay that way in America.
Hawn also chimed in: She said that former President Ronald Reagan was a well-known actor before entering politics, and his transition to being a politician was “a personal choice.” However, she remarked: “The one thing I don’t agree with is that just because we have a platform, we always have to use it. That is our choice.”
Comments go against the grain as Hollywood’s leftist leanings become obvious
The interview of Russell and Hawn came amid comments by other celebrities that openly criticized President Donald Trump.
Actor and vocal Trump critic Alec Baldwin tweeted Nov. 16: “Bury Trump in a Nazi graveyard and put a swastika on his grave.” He also wrote in the tweet that the president was “a maniac” and the majority of Americans “made the right choice” by not voting for him during the recent elections. Baldwin previously called Americans who planned to vote for Trump in the 2020 elections “mentally ill” back in April. (Related: Alec Baldwin unleashes tirade about woman with cancer.)
Robert De Niro is another actor that has criticized the president ever since he won in 2016. During an Nov. 10 MSNBC appearance, the actor known for his gangster films said that Trump had a “screw loose” and he would have been re-elected had he “done what he should’ve done” to address the coronavirus pandemic. In November 2019, De Niro called Trump a “fake president” and compared his administration to an “abusive household,” adding: “He calls everything ‘fake,’ because he knows he’s fake. So he’s projecting all the time.
Meanwhile, other Hollywood actors have called to blacklist Trump supporters. Scrubs actor Zach Braff urged people to “never forget all these enablers,” referring to those who supported the president, in a Nov. 19 tweet. Marvel Cinematic Universe star Chris Evans also tweeted the hashtag #RememberWhoSaidNothing on the same day as Braff. (Related: Ocasio-Cortez pushes to create “accountability project” targeting Trump supporters.)
Commenting on the Hollywood actors’ anti-Trump remarks, Alexa Moutevelis of NewsBusters wrote in her piece that the moral weight of Hollywood’s societal criticisms in the arts has lightened as its leftist leanings become more obvious. She posited that a film or television touching on a key public issue would be more effective if its actors and creators maintained a neutral stance, instead of and shoving leftist talking points down their audiences’ throats.
Moutevelis ended her commentary by lamenting that movies and shows nowadays are tantamount to “ham-handed lectures on political correctness” instead of “art that stirs the soul and inspires empathy and understanding.”
Find out more news about Hollywood’s leftist and anti-Trump leanings at HollywoodHater.com.
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